Various color compression algorithms for original color images are known in the art. Although 24-bit per pixel color images (hereinafter referred to as "true color") are not yet in widespread use, it is expected that there will be a requirement for such true color images, for color facsimile, color copiers, color printers, and color scanners. Most work up to the present time has been done in color image transmission.
Because of the amount of data contained in a "true color" image, it is very important to be able to compress the data before transmission in order to save expensive telecommunications bandwidth. There has been development on algorithms suitable for adoption by the CCITT (Consulting Committee on International Telephone and Telegraph). This has led to many offerings, and at the present time it is believed that an adaptive discrete cosine transform (ADCT) will be the algorithm adopted by the CCITT.
It would be highly desirable to provide an improved high quality color image compression system and method which is suitable for color image compression transmission techniques.